Pollo di Nozi crouched behind a tombstone, watching the stranger swish through the grass. She reached out, twisted off a stalk of wild lupin and held it to the snout of the stout grey sheep clamped under her arm. She prayed it would keep him happy. Now wasn’t the time for Shorn Connery to start bleating. Pollo — supersleuth and editor of the Riddle Gully Gazette — was onto something.

Pollo di Nozi, reporter-in-training, has a nose for news. Strange things are happening in Riddle Gully and Pollo smells a major scoop. With Shorn Connery, her sheepish sidekick, Pollo is determined to track down the Graffiti Kid. But is Will, the new boy in town, conspiring with the pushy mayor and a strange Transylvanian to send her sniffing up the wrong trail?

Pollo is desperate. She needs a story and will do just about anything to get it. Her reluctant offsider, Will, has moved in with his mum and new stepfather and is up to his eyeballs in trouble. Together, Pollo and Will make a pretty good, if misguided, team … for a while. This is the story of two feisty kids who discover something very different from what they go looking for.

This fast-paced, funny, multi-layered story is packed with adventure, mystery, false leads and bats! It interweaves themes of perception, family and the environment with a light touch, and is complemented by comprehensive Australian curriculum-linked teaching notes, accessible via the link on the left.